VICTORIA.

Southland Times, Issue 1201, 25 January 1870, Page 3

VICTORIA.

The arrival of the 5.3. Omeo yesterday afternoon places us in possession of files to the 19th iust. We make the following extracts -. — Wool sales very spirited. Mr Goldsborough sold last week 5000 bales. Greasy fetched from 5d to 9|d; scoured, lOd to 12|d; fleece, lid to 20d. Mr Byrne (Colonial Treasurer), and Mr Beeves (Commissioner for Public Works), have resigned, not being able to Tetain their seats. The names of their successors have not transpired. Mr Walter Montgomery has sailed for California. Heri 1 Bandmann is at Ballarat. Draper, late bank accountant, has been committed for trial on two fresh charges ! of embezzlement. He is unable to find j bail. I An investigation into the management ■ of the Nelson training ship is going on. Two schoolmasters, named Bojes and Parnell have been accused by Capt. Paine with treating the boys with undue harshness. Mills's timber yard and sawing mills, also Solomon's store in Flinders street West, were destroyed by fire on Thursday night, the 6th. The English pedestrians ran matches in the cricket ground on Saturday last, and were beaten in every race by the Colonial runners. Henry George Norton, mining manager of the Union Company, Ballarat, was brought up on the 18th, at the Police Court, charged with embezzlement. The magistrates dismissed the case, and stated that in their opinion great irregularities had only been proved against the accused. A miner named Patrick Carrick, at Eldorado, Vas killed on the 17th. He was attempting to get into the cage from one of the chambers while the cage was going up. He missed his jump, and was caught between, the cage and the shaft. Death was instantaneous. It is reported that the Government haa appointed Mr Nixon* formerly of the Melbourne press, and Secretary to the Western Bailway League, to the task of drawing up an official account of the resources of the colony for circulation at home. Mr Philip Davies is now in Ballarat, says the Star, having very quietly returned here on the 15th from Melbourne by the last train, on the arrival of which he was met by a number of his personal friends. The deep quartz shaft project, says the Sallarat Courier, is beginning to assume form and shape. It has left the region of Utopian theory, and commences to look like a commercial fact. The committee appointed at the meeting held a week or two since in the Alfred Hall, assembled at the Buck's Head Hotel, when it was resolved that tenders be invited, returnable on the 24th instant, from any and every company holding ground upon the irani lines' of" reefs in the "vicinity of Ballarat, for the disposal of their mines to a company to be formed for the purpose of testing in one or more places the quartz lodes at depths of 1000 or more feefc. - There is some talk of a deep sea fishing company being .floated in Melbourne. It is proposed to commence with a fleet of «x vessels of considerable t~"iage, fitted with thektest improvements, .d supplied with every requisite for carrying on operations with success. The fishing ground will probably be the banks off Tasmania, ana to the south-west of the island, all of which are thought to abound with shoals of excellent fish. Information relative to the expense of the plant has been obtained from America, England, and Scotland, which shows a fair profit on the operations of a company on a large scale. Dr Knight (says the Argus of the 19th) who has come from Sydney te Melbourne to make representations to the Victorian Government, with a view to induce it to subsidise the new mail service connecting Sydney vid Auckland and Honolulu with the San Franciscan terminus of the Pacific Bailway, and so across the American continent and the Atlantic with England, arrived in Melbourne on Saturday last, and had an interview with the Chief Secretary yesterday. Mr Macpherson promised Dr Knight that if he could see that any advantage to Victoria would accrue, the £6,000 a year asked for should not be grudged. He would lay the matter before his colleagues, and give the subject a full and fair consideration. In consequence of certain statements recently made (says the Argus of the 17th inst.) the Victoria Sugar Company have had samples of their produce analysed by Mr William Johnson, analytical chemist, who reports aa follows: — " The Secretary Victoria Sugar Company. Sir, —ln obedience to your request that I would examine samples of the various sugars manufactured at your works at Sandridge, I paid a visit to the establishment, and with my own hands selected five different specimens. The whole of these samples contained traces of lime and common salt, the proportion being more perceptible in the darker Muds, but I did not succeed in detecting any trace of arsenic or other poisonous substance by the most careful analysis. Doubtless the addition of a little Hme in the early stages of the manufacture, to neutralise the natural acidity of the raw sugar, and to assist in the separation of vegetable impurities, explains the presence of this substance in the perfected article. It is, however, perfectly harmless, as is also common salt, the origin of whiclr is traceable to the cane-juice itself. Having inspected every portion of the works, and the different processes of purification used, I have no hesitation in saying it is quite impossible any arsenic could have become mixed with the sugar in the process of manufacture. —l am, yours obediently, ¥m. Johnson, Government Analytical Chemist."